With the latest information made available to SS, the cold war between Multichoice Nigeria Limited the Nigerian branch of the South African cable and Satellite Television and Radio channels distribution giant and Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN), is rearing its ugly head, as the former has taken the latter to court.
SS gathered that MCSN had written Multichoice severally asking the company to obtain copyright licence and pay for the distribution of television and audio channels, and for its broadcasting activities in Nigeria without any positive response from the DStv provider.
In a statement released to SS, ever since Multichoice began its operations in Nigeria, it has refused to meet its legal copyright obligations within the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria neither has it paid any copyright royalties to the appropriate right owners since it began operations in Nigeria. The reason why MCSN wrote Multichoice to pay its cumulative copyright charges and royalties in the sum of Four Billion, One Hundred and Fifty Seven Million, Four Hundred and Sixty Thousand, Five Hundred Naira.
Ignoring the claim of MCSN that, as an owner, assignee and exclusive licensee of copyright, is legally bound to collect royalties, the cable giant dragged MCSN to Lagos High Court claiming that it cannot collect royalties since it is not registered by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) as a collecting society.
Reacting to the story during a telephone chat, Orits Williki, the Chairman of MCSN, said, “The Multichoice suit can be likened to a case of a thief challenging the owner of a stolen property on the claim that the property owner is not a police officer”. He concluded that it would be interesting to see how the Nigerian judiciary would allow an illegal squatter on a property to continue with his trespass.
On the other hand, when SS contacted Segun Fayose, the Multichoice's Head of Corporate Communications refused to comment on the issue in other to avoid the contempt of law, since the case is in court.
Not worry SS will keep you posted as drama unfolds.
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